1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatus for improving the ability of a memory storage system to efficiently and effectively protect, store and retrieve data stored in multiple storage locations.
2. Description of the Related Art
In certain memory storage systems data is stored in multiple storage locations. For example, in some such systems, multiple individual hard disks or memory chips are used to store data and the data stored in one or more of the storage devices is associated with data stored in other storage devices in such a manner that data errors in one or more storage devices can be detected and possibly corrected. One such approach is to store a given quantity of data across multiple storage locations by dividing the data into data portions of equal length—the individual data portions sometimes being referred to as “data pages”—and then storing the data pages in multiple storage locations such that one data page is stored in each storage device. In connection with this approach, a further storage device may be used to store a page of data protection information, where a given page of data protection information is associated with a specific set of data pages stored in the multiple storage locations. In some instances, the set of data pages in the multiple locations that is used to store associated data is referred to as a “data stripe” or “Page Stripe.”
In conventional systems, the length of all of the data stripes used in the system is the same. Thus, in such systems, all of the data stored in the system is divided into data stripes of the same length, with each data stripe consisting of the same number of pages, and with each data stripe being stored in the same number of memory locations. Also, in such system, each data stripe conventionally utilizes the same form of data protection and the data protection information for each data stripe is determined in the same way.
In conventional systems as described above, if there is a full or complete failure of the structure associated with a given memory location (e.g., the specific memory device associated with that location fails), the data protection information for a given data stripe can often be used to reconstruct the data in the data page that was stored in the failed memory location. Using the reconstructed data, the data for the entire data stripe may be reconstructed. In such systems, when a storage location in a system as described fails and the data protection information page is used to reconstruct the data associated with the failed storage location, the reconstructed data is stored in a reserve or back-up storage location that takes the place of the failed storage location within the system such that the data stripe that was associated with the failed memory location is reconstructed in substantially the same form. Thus, the reconstructed data stripe consists of the same number of pages, is stored in the same number of memory locations, and utilizes the same form of data protection as the data stripe that was associated with the failed storage location.
While the conventional approach described above can beneficially detect and respond to the failure of a memory storage location within a memory storage system, it requires the availability of a reserve or back-up storage location to take the place of the failed storage location. Such reserve or back-up locations can be costly and/or inefficient to provide and/or maintain and/or are not always available.
A further limitation of the conventional approach is that each page of data (or each data item) is associated with only a single page stripe and each page stripe is associated with only a single data protection page. While this approach allows for the reconstruction of a single page of corrupted data within a page stripe (assuming that the other data pages and data protection page within the page stripe are not corrupted) it does not allow for the reconstruction of corrupted data pages in the event that multiple data pages within the page stripe are corrupted.